Abel Sanchez Says Ryan Garcia Would Knock Out Pitbull Cruz
Abel Sanchez does not want Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz anywhere near Ryan Garcia.
The longtime Big Bear trainer told Fight Hub TV that Garcia would stop Cruz if the December talk ever becomes a fight.
“Dang, you think Ryan knocks him out?” host Marcos asked.
“Absolutely,” Sanchez said. “Well, any one of the 40-pounders probably is a better idea than Ryan.”
He said it again without hedging.
“I think he needs to stay away from Ryan. Ryan knocks him out.”
Cruz called Garcia out after stopping Nestor Bravo in the sixth round Saturday in San Diego. Garcia answered with a December offer and said it would be the last time he asked.
Sanchez watched that Bravo fight and still saw a mismatch at 147.
“Just in what I saw on Saturday, Ryan’s too much fighter for him,” Sanchez said. “Too big, too strong, too rangy, smarter.”
That is the size gap in one sentence. Cruz holds the interim WBC title at 140. Garcia is the full WBC welterweight champion at 147 after a second-round stoppage of Conor Benn on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas.
Garcia is 26-2 with 21 knockouts. Cruz is 29-3-2 with 19 knockouts.
Sanchez did not bury Cruz at his own weight. He said the pressure fighter can still win at 140 if he stays composed.
“Any of the other guys, his pressure will give, will keep him in the fight, as long as he stays controlled and not be in a wrestling match like he was,” Sanchez said. “I think that he has a chance against any of the 40-pounders.”
The Bravo fight turned sloppy. Referee Thomas Taylor took two points from Bravo for fouls before Cruz landed the left hook that ended it at 1:30 of the sixth.
Sanchez’s warning is about leaving that division. He thinks Cruz’s pressure keeps him competitive against other 140-pounders. He does not think that same pressure solves Garcia’s reach.
Marcos asked if the finish would look like the Benn knockout.
“No, maybe not that quick,” Sanchez said. “I think Conor Benn was depleted. I think Conor’s resistance, because of the weight loss was bad.”
Then he described the shot he expects if Cruz has to reach.
“But I think that if he gets Pitbull reaching for him, which is Brian, Ryan will make him reach, he’ll catch him with that long hook and do the kind of the same thing he did to Bravo.”
Sanchez has been around this conversation all month. After Garcia-Benn, he told Fight Hub that Benn’s weight cut made the knockout hard to judge. He still sees Garcia’s left hook as the problem Cruz would have to solve on the way in.
That is the entire forecast. Stay at 140, Sanchez said. Do not give Garcia a target that has to close distance.
None of this books the fight. Garcia put December on the table and said Cruz had already turned him down twice, including once as a mandatory. Cruz asked for the fight in the ring and has not announced a signed contract.
Weight is still the first hurdle. Garcia has not said he is coming back to 140. Cruz has not said he is moving up on paper.
Sanchez is not negotiating that deal. He is telling Cruz the safer path is the one that stays in his own weight class.
If the two sides actually make December, Sanchez’s prediction is already on tape. He thinks Garcia makes Cruz reach and finds the same left hook that dropped Bravo.